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Schools told to teach 3 compulsory subjects in Arabic

DUBAI - The Minister of Education and Youth, Dr Aly Abdul Aziz Al Shirhan, in a decree has instructed all private Arab and foreign schools to teach three compulsory subjects in Arabic and has set the number of weekly classes for every subject - Islamic Studies, Social Studies and Arabic Language - from Grade 1 to Grade 12 starting from the academic year 2004/2005.

This decree amends Articles 31 & 32 of the executive regulation for the private educational law, which previously stipulated that these subjects be optional in the secondary stage.

The decree states that Islamic Studies should be taught to Arab Muslims from Grade 1 to Grade 12 as per the educational syllabus of government schools and books. As for foreign schools, Islamic Studies should be taught in English and will be compulsory for Muslim students & optional for non-Muslim students.

As for the Arabic Language, it will be taught to all Arab and non-Arab students from Grade 1 to Grade 12, but for foreigners the syllabus will be defined by the Ministry of Education & Youth.

Social Studies will be taught to Arab students from Grade 1 to Grade 9 as per the government school syllabus and in the Arabic Language replacing the foreign Social Studies. Non-Arabs will be given Social Studies in the foreign language for the same grades but according to specific syllabus and books approved by the Ministry.

Foreign schools are allowed to teach the syllabus of Social Studies provided by the country the school is affiliated to, but only to foreign students and after the approval of the Ministry, in addition to the syllabus given by the Ministry.

Weekly classes for the three subjects are defined as follows: Arab students learning the government syllabus in private foreign schools will take three classes for Islamic Studies from Grade 1 to Grade 3 and 2 classes from Grade 4 to Grade 12.

For the Arabic Language, six classes will be given from Grade 1 to Grade 3 and five classes from Grade 4 to Grade 6 and four classes from Grade 7 to Grade 12.

For Social Studies, it will be one class for Grade 1 to Grade 6 and two classes from Grade 7 to Grade 9. Each class will be 40 minutes.

As for non-Arab students studying the special syllabus, they will take two classes weekly in Islamic Studies from Grade 1 to Grade 12, and four classes weekly for the Arabic Language from Grade 1 to Grade 12.

The Social Studies will be given once a week from Grade 4 to Grade 9.